MELBOURNE got its AFL Women’s premiership defence off to an emphatic start on Friday night with a solid 42 point win over Collingwood, and Dees star premiership ruck Lauren Pearce was certainly a happy camper post match.

“It was good” she said speaking about the game.

“I mean it was tight for the first half but then we were able to break it open in the third which was nice. But the girls I think were just able to reset at half time and really get out there in the second half.”

After being down and behind on the scoreboard heading into half time, Pearce said the Dees regroup at half time and were able to turn things around in the second half.

“I think we knew throughout the whole first quarter what we needed to fix,” she said. “We just weren’t able to do it, so I think just a little break, composing ourselves and getting back out there.

“There wasn’t too much that needed to be said because we all sort of knew and we said it ourselves but we just, our contests were a bit scrappy, we weren’t winning the ball cleanly and they got it too easily and took it forward and we just weren’t ready for it, so just adjusting to that.”

Despite being the star ruck she is, Pearce said that she was happy with her game but it was not perfect.

“I’ve still got a long way to go,” she said. “You have such a long preseason but games you just find are so different being out there and I think match fitness and also just reading the ball and the play and different styles of game you play depending on who you’re playing against. I thought I did okay but there’s always room for improvement over the next few weeks.”

Pearce had a new ruck partner on Friday night, working in tandem with second gamer Georgia Campbell, and Pearce was full of praise for her young team mate.

“She’s doing so well lately,” she said. “It helps because I can come off when I need to and she’s straight on and her work rate and obviously she got a mark in the goal square and got a goal as well so she’s pretty agile and fit so it works well to have a pair and then we can just rotate between each other.”

Next week the Dees are in Canberra to face the Giants, but ever focused on the moment Pearce admitted she was not thinking about next week’s game yet.

“I’m not going to lie I haven’t even thought that far ahead” she said with a laugh. “I do know that we’re playing them, but that’s all I know. I haven’t looked too much into their game yet and their game style, but I’m sure we’ll go through that this week. For now it’s just about recovery and then I’ll look into that, probably at the start of the week.”